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Students with disabilities sail the Derwent River

MARK COLVIN: In Tasmania, primary and high school kids with intellectual and physical disabilities are getting the chance to go sailing, courtesy of the Sydney based charity Sailors with Disabilities.

For many of the children it's their first time on a yacht.

Felicity Ogilvie was aboard.

FELICITY OGILVIE: The sails are going up as a boatload of teenage boys from Hobart start their trip on the Derwent River.

One by one the boys get a chance to take the helm, while crew members from Sailors with Disabilities explain how to steer.

CREW: So can you feel the wind on your face?

JAKE LINFOOT: Yes, I can feel the wind.

CREW: It's really important to feel the wind on your face, and that gives you an idea of when you have to steer into the wind or out of the wind and we'll give you instructions about that, so you keep feeling the wind on your face and that'll help you.

JAKE LINFOOT: It feels nice, freedom.

KATHY VEEL: Yes, absolutely I agree.

FELICITY OGILVIE: Fifteen-year-old Jake Linfoot is learning fast.

JAKE LINFOOT: It's amazing, you get to really feel the boat and how it moves around.

FELICITY OGILVIE: And you said that you felt free, why did you feel free?

JAKE LINFOOT: Because you get to do anything out here, it's freedom. You don't have to be at home, working, studying, you could be out here.

FELICITY OGILVIE: Others in the group of boys make their way to the front of the boat where the ride is rougher.

BOY: I was just there and the full on water just went all over my face. Look at my top! I'm freezing now! My fingers are going to fall off.

Oh my God. That's probably the biggest...I got more of it just then. Even back here you can still get wet, oh my God.

FELICITY OGILVIE: One of the boys, Brandon, sits smiling next to a winch.

BRANDON: It's the best day of my life, really, because I've never actually been sailing before, so yeah.

FELICITY OGILVIE: What makes it so good?

BRANDON: That I'm here with my friends and my teachers are really nice to let us do this and you guys.

FELICITY OGILVIE: The skipper of the yacht is Kathy Veel. Every morning and afternoon she is taking Hobart school children, like this group of boys, for a trip on the Derwent.

Two hundred and fifty of them will have a sail over the next week, all of them have a disability of one sort or another.

KATHY VEEL: Kids who almost appear unresponsive, who are confined to life in a wheelchair, and to see them just express excitement and when the wind's in their hair and they can feel the movement of the boat is amazing.

Then we've had other kids who are much more mobile but maybe have behavioural issues, social issues and developmental disorders, so there's just a whole range of abilities that has been presented to us.

FELICITY OGILVIE: The founder of Sailors with Disabilities, David Pescud, says the charity aims to stop people being defined by their disability.

DAVID PESCUD: This is about saying to people you can, if you think you can, and we try to turn that switch on. We try to get people to think that maybe they can go down the road and buy a loaf of bread tomorrow or maybe they can have a think about that exam or that situation or anything.

MARK COLVIN: The founder of Sailors with Disabilities, David Pescud, ending that report from Felicity Ogilvie.